Just saw massive column of smoke behind house. We dashed out to find the flames and found a car on fire down the lane across the road. So exciting! Here’s a photo of the firemen putting out the flames, and a couple of onlookers.
Car fire
The firemen didn’t seem to know where the nearest fire hydrant was – they could save valuable time if they had fire hydrant locations loaded onto a sat nav in the fire engine, or is that too obvious?!
I arrived at my sister’s smallholding (Quinta das Abelhas) in Portugal today, after a long and tiring trek from home. Mum and I flew to Porto yesterday, and stayed the night at Pão de Açúcar with my sister and her husband. The rooms we had were very nice, but not quite as stylish as the ones shown on the website. One thing that was as good as it looks is the staircase.
Pão de Açúcar staircase
Today, we all explored parts of Porto, including the, reputedly, most beautiful bookshop in the world! – Livraria Lello).
Livraria Lello, Rua das Carmelitas
Unfortunately, as it was Sunday, we could not get a proper look inside. However, the interior can be seen from dizzying angles at 360 Portugal, and it is included in the world’s 10 best bookshops (according to the Guardian).
We strolled on into Rua dos Clerigos, with views west towards Clerigos Tower, and east towards Praça de Liberdade and beyond.
Rua dos Clérigos - view west
Rua dos Clérigos - view east
We made our way on to the cable car to get down the hill to Ponte Dom Luis and Cais de Ribeira. As the cable car emerges from the tunnel and rounds the bend, the view is a stunning panorama of south Porto.
Ponte Dom Luis
The gifts in the tourist shops along Cais de Ribeira are bright and colourful, but, of course, very pricey. The tile-fronted houses, with decorative balconies are all very pretty.
The square at the west end of Cais da Ribeira (where it joins Rua dos Mercadores) is also lovely – very busy with people at the restaurant. There is a certain ‘Englishness’ about the buildings here, especially the black and white one – the timber frame, sash windows and a little bit more overhang at each higher level.
Rua dos Mercadores from riverside
We had a delicious lunch at Chez Lapin, a restaurant by the river, then slowly made our way back to Ponte Dom Luis, across the river and towards our transport home, enjoying the colourful scenery along the way.
Fig tree with Ponte Dom Luis beyond
Cais de Estiva
The weather has been gorgeous, with bright blue skies making the architecture look even more stunning. It was a brief tour of Porto, and a very enjoyable one.
It was exciting to see my sister’s place, too – a lot has changed since I was last here and everything is looking very good. Life here is very low impact and sustainable, using a huge range of technologies along the way.
They grow their own fruit and vegetables, using them to make olive oil, wine, jams, pickles, etc. There are various forms of accommodation spread out across their bit of terraced hillside – a small house, a bigger house (renovation in progress), three yurts and three caravans.
View from yurt
Visitors are welcome here, whether it’s for a low impact holiday or to volunteer on the farm in return for food and accommodation. See Portugal Smallholding for more information.
It was great to meet all the animals – I don’t even have a cat any more, and having grown up on a small-holding with various combinations of dogs, cats, goats, pigs, Shetland ponies, bullock, turkeys, chickens, etc, I miss having a few furry friends around!
Horses at Quinta das Abelhas
Skyline at Quinta das Abelhas
With an eventful day drawing to a close, I’m feeling quite reflective, so bear with me if the next bit sounds like nonsense! It has been a day of strange familiarity in a way, back on a small-holding, which brings memories from childhood, and back in Portugal, which reminds me of more recent times. When I was studying geology, we had three or four field trips to Portugal, so the architecture and landscape are familiar, but still strange in some ways, too.
Most of my recent travels have been to Ireland, which is probably why it feels quite strange to be here – it’s hard to explain, but I know what I mean! Perhaps something to do with going to Ireland feeling like ‘home’, whereas coming here definitey feels ‘foreign’ and like being on holiday.
Anyway, holiday or not, I still have to go to bed (this has never been one of my strong points, nor has getting up!). Good night!
Crikey, I just read this: ”Defense Spooks: Let’s Control Enemy Minds” and am incensed! Can any weapon be ethical, let alone one that impairs your enemies’ ability to respond?? I agree with some of the comments there, including ZenDraken, who said:
“On the other hand, here’s a thought experiment: What if we had a truly non-lethal, non-destructive weapon that simply caused the enemy to lay down their arms and surrender? Would it be unethical for us to use such a weapon? Or would it be unethical for us to *not* use such a weapon?”
Indeed, a tricky one, I think – in the light of my “all weapons are unethical” generalisation, perhaps…? Who knows? I would say “I can’t argue with myself”, but, knowing me, I probably could!
Obviously, it would be unethical to instigate your enemy to surrender, and then to take advantage of that by taking control where it had been relinquished. However, to ‘enable’ an attacking enemy to withdraw, so that you can go about your peaceful, lawful business, might be a different matter. But, where do you draw the line? who do you consider ‘attackers’: those who disagree with your beliefs? those who are campaigning for you to change your beliefs? and/or those who might/will/are trying to harm you for your beliefs?
Who am I to preach to another how they should live their lives? There are so many diverse cultures (eg different religions, indigenous tribes) in this world, all with the right to live within their beliefs. OK, that sounds reasonable. But, what if those beliefs include animal sacrifice? control of a particular section of society? human sacrifice? child abuse? The ‘western/capitalist world’ claims to be ‘civilised’, but also seems to have many faults, one of which is, perhaps, being overly judgemental of others (both within and without the ‘western world’).
Therefore, why should the ‘western world’ presume to try and preach to others – maybe it is us who’ve been wrong all along, and we should keep our noses out of other people’s business, instead of trying to impose our beliefs on people and situations where ‘western beliefs’ are inappropriate.
Yes, we are back in Rochdale again – exploring the moors above the town to see what they will reveal to those who care enough to look. We’re staying at Fernhill Barn again, which is now in new ownership. The B&B is still very comfortable, although they no longer provide cooked breakfast. There is a kitchen for guests’ use, so this can help save money on eating out.
Anyway, first morning I didn’t fancy the breakfast on offer, so had more time in bed! I got by until lunch on a banana and a piece of flapjack. We went up to explore some more of Rooley Moor. The weather was quite cloudy and breezy, and the wind turbines were actually turning at last.
Wind turbines on Rooley Moor
I think the turbines look rather majestic, especially when they’re turning. I know they are controversial, and blamed for spoiling beautiful views, but I think they look rather magnificent. I agree that we should be minimising our energy usage, rather than seeking new sources to satisfy our ever-increasing demands.
However, even with all the energy-saving that can be done (by industry, in the home and through improvements in the generation and storage of energy), I think we still need to capture a variety of renewable energy resources, and current efforts amount to a drop in the (thus far largely untapped) ocean! I wonder how many people in Rochdale appreciate the wildlife of the moors and the threat posed to it by our continuing demand for energy and other resources.
Rooley Moor Road with Rochdale beyond
I really enjoy being up on the moors at different times of the year – I get the opportunity to see the subtle changes in the landscape that result from the variety of wild flowers that thrive up here. I think the cotton grass looks particularly pretty.
Wind turbines, with cotton grass in foreground
It is always a strange experience being up here, in this wide open space, and thinking of the huge and busy urban centres below, and all those millions of people getting on with their daily lives, perhaps not thinking of the variety of wildlife and heritage almost on their doorstep. I must admit, if I lived in a high-rise block, my first concern might not be the wild flowers on the moors!
'Seven Sisters' viewed from Rooley Moor
After a long hike around the moors (well, long for me!), we went to the Red Lion in Whitworth for a late lunch. We enjoyed staying here a few weeks ago, when they served excellent food, so we thought we’d come again and it’s still good. In the evening we returned to somewhere else we know well – the Raj Restaurant at 444 Edenfield Road. The curries here are just divine – for me deliciously mild, sweet and tasty, and for ethics boy stonkingly hot and firey!
It’s Saturday now, and the architecture in Lancashire seems to have a particularly severe presence, I suppose it has to be very hard-wearing to stand up to the elements – and when stone is what you’ve got, stone is what you build with! I like the stone-mullioned, leaded windows on this farmhouse on the moors (although I am not so sure about the modern wooden frames upstairs!).
This morning we went to Munchies Sandwich Bar for breakfast, where they will serve you any combination of cooked breakfast you desire (even vegetarian). It was simply deliciously cholesterol-busting and I don’t care a bit! After breakfast we made our way northwards once again to Todmorden – a delightful market town on the Lancashire / Yorkshire border. One of our favourite places to eat here is the Bear Co-op health food shop and cafe in Rochdale Road, which serves food so scrumptiouly healthy it could counteract the worst cholesterol breakfast you can think of!
Rochdale Road, Todmorden
Inside, the cafe is just wonderful – so bright and airy from the huge window, books to read, flowers on the tables, a really nice place to be.
Bear Cafe, Todmorden
The shop front of the Bear Co-op is also very attractive, showing the original ‘Todmorden Industrial & Co-operative Society’ sign, and the ’severe architecture’ that is typical of Lancashire.
Bear Co-op
By now it was late on Saturday afternoon, and we had to head home – the journey home always seems longer and more boring – though we could be glad that neither of us had to go to work in the morning!
It was such a gorgeous day today, really warm with lots of sunshine, that we (myself, mum and mum’s friend’s nine-year-old daughter) went for a late-afternoon picnic at Newmarket Heath. First, we raided Waitrose for picnic food, then walked across the sandy tracks (it felt just like going to the beach!) in Warren Hill Plantation, to the southern edge of the wood. We settled down in the shade of the trees, with lovely views across the countryside, to eat the grub.
Newmarket Heath - view south-east from Warren Hill Plantation
I did wonder why we brought two dogs with us – they wanted to run around and have sticks thrown for them, but ended up trampling the picnic (and some of the picnickers!). We sat and mused (and the nine-year-old meditated) for a while and it was a really lovely afternoon.
I wonder how much longer it will be quiet and peaceful in rural Suffolk and Cambridgeshire? It was only last month I read “Newmarket racehorses ‘under threat’ from Stansted expansion” in The Times, and wondered why racehorses deserve greater protection than humans from increased aircraft noise! National Air Traffic Services (NATS) recently consulted on its Airspace Change Proposal to re-organise the stacking system used by aircraft queueing to land at some airports in south-east England.
Among the potential changes in East Anglia, it is proposed that aircraft currently stacking over Royston and Sudbury (ie urban areas), will stack over rural parts of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. Whilst this may mean that fewer people are beneath the stacking aircraft, the impact on those people will be significantly greater. When aircraft stack over urban areas, the noise is masked by the constant background noise of urban life, whereas the noise of aircraft stacking over rural areas will be much more noticeable, because the background noise is so much lower.
The consultation period ended in June, but all the relevant documents are still available from NATS Airspace Change Proposal Consultation Document page, including the Initial Feedback Report published in July 2008. On 24th July, the Newmarket Journal reported that 86% of respondents to the consultation were against the proposal, and that, following pressure from local MPs, the House of Commons Transport Committee will lead an inquiry into airspace management. I will be interested to see how the proposals might be changed in response to consultation responses and the Transport Committee inquiry.
Yesterday, ethics boy and I decided that we enjoyed our stay at Leaches Farm so much (and they were so friendly and helpful, what with the broken car and late night, etc) that we wanted to send them a thank you gift. I thought about sending flowers, but you have to spend a lot to get anything really nice, and ethics boy rightly said that we should give them something that lasts. He suggested some of the hand-made crafts from the shop at Wicken Fen, but I wasn’t sure.
We trekked out to Wicken, and eventually decided on a frog and a mouse made locally using rushes from Wicken Fen. Naturally, we had tea and scones while we were there (although we did resist refrigerator cake this time), and watched the birds (one of them quite a chubby fellow!) at the bird-feeders and pecking around for crumbs.
On the way home, ethics boy took us on an interesting (honestly!) detour to Soham. We went to Budgens(!), where there were some bargains to be had, then had a stroll through the town. Attached to the Fountain Inn, on the corner of Churchgate Street and Fountain Lane, is an interesting-looking apparatus; it looks like a wynch, but having looked it up, I’ve found that it is a ‘steelyard‘, described by ‘the Council’ as a “device for weighing wagons”. The structure is listed, and further information is on East Cambridgeshire District Council’s website.
Steelyard and Fountain Inn, Fountain Lane, Soham
The Fountain Inn itself is also very attractive. It seems to have its original windows (some leaded, some sash), and generally adds to the character of the street. People often appear to ignore the heritage on their doorstep, perhaps dismissing interesting architectural features as ‘ordinary’ or ‘old-fashioned’. I would like to see more attention paid to conserving the character of traditional buildings, however ordinary they may, at first, seem.
Fountain Inn, Soham - south elevation
Fountain Inn, Soham - view from south-east
What a chaotic weekend that was! Exhausting, too. There was a meeting of the Rochdale Heritage Society on Saturday, so we travelled to Rochdale on Friday and planned to stay at Leaches Farm B&B until Sunday. On Friday evening we had dinner at Owd Bett’s (Edenfield Road, opposite Ashworth Resevoir). The pub is very nice, the manager is Portuguese and the chef is French, and the food was delicious. It’s popular and well-known locally, and deservedly so – I would certainly like to go there again.
View from our room at Leaches Farm
After dinner, we decided to go back and get an early night because breakfast at the B&B is at 8.30am. On the way back to the B&B we passed through the same huge puddle in the road that we did on the way out (at a dip in Ashworth Road between Wind Hill Farm and Copped Hill Farm). Then, just as we were turning into the track for Leaches Farm, the car conked out and would not start!
Apparently, this was because the air intake is in the wrong place, so that water got into the engine, and not because the driver gleefully drove through the water at sufficient speed to cause a tsunami-like wave across south Lancashire! Anyway, the car still wouldn’t start 15 minutes later, so we called the breakdown recovery people (the Environmental Transport Association) and they sent someone who tried to fix the problem, but couldn’t. By the time he’d hitched the car up to his truck (having left the handbrake off, so that the car rolled back into the hedge!) and towed us up the track at 5mph, it was gone midnight and the poor lady at the B&B (we had let her know what was happening) had waited up for us and seemed very weary.
Saturday
In the morning, we had delicious full breakfast and chatted to Jane, who runs the B&B. After breakfast we tried again to start the car, but no luck. We had to get a taxi into Rochdale for the meeting. The meeting went well and some interesting topics were raised:
After the meeting, I waited in Touchstones cafe (good tea and scones!), while ethics boy went to Halfords for bits to fix the car with. Then we had a walk round Rochdale, saw the ‘black box‘ (“the beginning of the end for Rochdale”, according to Jane at Leaches Farm), walked around the indoor market, then on to the first ever ‘co-op’ store: the Rochdale Pioneers Museum. We had late lunch (roasted veg & mozzarella ciabatta – could have done with more mozzarella) at The Baum Wine Bar near the museum.
Rochdale Town Hall
The 'Black Box', Rochdale
Rochdale Pioneers' Museum, Toad Lane, Rochdale
After lots of running backwards and forwards for the bus (we missed it first time, then got given the wrong time for the next one!), we got the bus up Edenfield Road to the White Lion, where we had a meal. It’s a fairly ordinary pub, with fairly ordinary pub food at reasonable prices. We got a taxi back to the B&B and enjoyed a cup of tea and a chat with Jane, and her daughter Deborah.
Evening view from Leaches Farm
Sunday
On Sunday morning, at breakfast, we were chatting with Deborah and she said something that has to be my favourite quote this weekend, along the lines of: “I hate sheep, they are maliciously stupid”! Deborah went on to back up her claims, but I have forgotten what else she said. I like sheep, although I tend to agree that they do seem to have some malice in their stupidity!
After breakfast (and now with the help of Deborah and her van, and a set of jump leads), the car would still not start. We changed the distributor cap and rotor arm (suggested by the breakdown man), and had all the spark plugs out, but nothing – so we’d definitely have to stay an extra night. We both felt tired and dispirited by early afternoon, and couldn’t decide what to do. I didn’t have the energy or enthusiasm for a walk, especially as the weather looked dodgy, so sat daydreaming in the rocking chair!
Later on, Deborah offered us a lift up the road on her way home, so we gladly accepted and went to Bangla Fusion (just along the road from Owd Betts) for their ‘all you can eat’ buffet lunch (as recommended by Deborah earlier). The food there was delicious – a nice mild lamb curry, and a slightly spicier chicken curry, preceded by several onion bhajis! We walked to Owd Bett’s for some of their Lemon Tart for dessert, and a glass of good red wine, then back along the road and across the fields to the B&B for a cup of tea and a chat with Jane and Deborah.
Bangla Fusion, Edenfield Road, Rochdale
Monday
At last, after breakfast when we try the car again, it starts firing and eventually starts. We set-out to give it a good run on the motorway, fill-up with petrol and then go and meet ethics boy’s cousin and his mate at the Three Arrows, near Heaton Park. We were disappointed with the food there – ethics boy’s roast beef was tough, but the chef insisted it was okay – fine, we just won’t eat there again!
After lunch we headed to Ogden, where there used to be a good tea room and craft shop at a group of nicely-renovated buildings in this small village. Unfortunately, the tea room closed down a couple of years ago and is now a private house. We chatted to the owner of one of the properties there (who said that sadly some people come and steal the flagstones), and took some photos, then set-out on a search for a good cafe. We headed to Hollingworth Lake, which was very busy in the fine weather, and found Charlotte’s Cafe, where I had a delicious maple syrup pancake with ice cream – hmmm a great end to a weird weekend.
Nice old house at Ogden (yes, sunshine and bright blue sky on the day we had to leave - typical!)
This afternoon the weather was very dreary – grey clouds and looming rain. The clouds would seem to blow over, only to be replaced by darkening skies again. Eventually we took the plunge and set-out to walk some of the public footpaths at Wicken Fen (a National Trust nature reserve, with 7,000 species of wildlife, near Ely, Cambridgeshire). Wicken Fen was the first nature reserve owned by the National Trust (acquired in 1899). Through the Wicken Fen Vision, the National Trust proposes to extend the reserve across 22 square miles of farmland between Wicken and Cambridge (it currently owns about 2,300 acres), and anticipates that this will take around 100 years.
I am sceptical about the objectives of the National Trust’s vision, and its commitment to public footpaths. The NT can appear to be aggressive and arrogant as a landowner. Some think that the NT has a tendency to neglect the public paths across its land, preferring to direct people towards paying to walk at their properties. It has also appeared to claim ownership of (and carry out work on) droves around Wicken Fen that it demonstrably does not own. However, today I did notice that the sign for the public footpath near the Visitor Centre was clearly visible. The public footpaths in the area can be seen using Cambridgeshire County Council’s Online Inter-active Public Rights of Way Map, or at the Multimap website (public rights of way shown by broken red lines), or using good old-fashioned Ordnance Survey paper maps (available from most bookshops) – Wicken is shown on the Ordnance Survey Explorer map 226 – Ely and Nemarket.
Anyway, that’s enough of my public rights of way soap box (oh well, maybe just one more thing – a good book on the subject of public access to the countryside is “This Land Is Our Land: The Struggle for Britain’s Countryside”, by Marion Shoard).
We had a lovely walk through the fen, with atmospheric moody, grey clouds above us – although I am pleased to say we did stay completely dry! We enjoyed browsing the Visitor Centre, and the various local (but seemingly over-priced) crafts and produce, and some interesting books. We bought “Britain’s Countryside: A Walker’s Guide”, by Geoffrey Young. It’s a lovely illustrated book about Britain’s landscape and the various influences on it from pre-historic times to the present, and it is good value at £2.99!
I would prefer to see more of the children’s items in the shop made from natural/sustainable sources, eg rushes, wood, etc; most of the children’s things seem to be brightly-coloured plastic and not in-keeping with the apparent ethos of the National Trust, or the needs/wants of those visiting a nature reserve.
To round-off the day we enjoyed tea and scones with butter and jam, followed by some chocolately, biscuity enjoyment, which, we were assured by the girl in the Wicken Fen cafe, is like ‘refrigerator cake’ – whatever that is!
Wicken Methodist Church
On the walk back, we stopped by Jennifer Sargent’s Cambridge Open Studio, and passed this wall very well covered with a rambling rose – very bright and colourful!
Rose wall, Wicken
We also passed by the Maid’s Head hoping for a pint of refreshment (but the pub was closed), we heard a warbler of some kind hiding in the reeds warbling very loudly! Lastly we encountered some of the wild Konik ponies that inhabit the fen – they look stunning against the fen landscape.
Konik Ponies at Wicken Fen
Pair of Konik Ponies
The weather was lovely today, so instead of staying at home and working in the garden (where there is plenty to do), we went to the Orchard Tea Garden at Grantchester for afternoon tea. I have really enjoyed rediscovering various traditional tea rooms in the Cambridge area and beyond. Orchard Tea Rooms must be one of the best I’ve found: there are delicious and generous scones and cakes, and tempting snacks; and such a delightful atmosphere – reclining in a deck chair, soaking up the sun in the orchard is a great way to spend the afternoon, followed by a walk along the river to burn-off some of the calories!
